Research Interests

PictureOne of my tiny research subjects, Utah, exercising those little infant muscles
My dissertation research revolved around chimpanzee social and hormonal development with a focus on tracking sex differences in social strategies. The major aims of my project were to examine how androgen hormones, underlying differences in social attention, and social experience interact to shape male and female social behavior between infancy and adolescence. 

To achieve this, I followed infant and juvenile chimpanzees of the Kanyawara community of chimpanzees at Kibale National Park, Uganda (see map at right), observing social interactions, collecting detailed data on gaze and attention, and opportunistically collecting urine samples for hormonal analysis. Yes, it is actually the best job.

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Attention and Behavioral Development
Even from the youngest ages, like month-old Omukunyu (left), infant chimpanzees are very aware of their surroundings and spend a lot of time watching other group members interact with each other and their environment. We think that all this watching comprises one way that young chimpanzees might learn skills from what to eat to how to make tools to social customs. For instance, Buke (right) check in with her older brother's grooming style as she works on her own skills. 

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Play as a Mode of Learning
Infant and juvenile chimpanzees have a lot to learn about their social environments on the road to becoming successful adults. Play is one of the most common social interactions among young chimps and comprises one very important way that they can and practice skills behaviors and build bonds with other group members in preparation for navigating adult social interactions. Chimpanzee mothers are generally their infants' first and most tolerant play partners, but we do not yet know whether mothers' may contribute to diverging male and female social strategies by playing with sons differently (i.e. more roughly) or more often than daughters. 
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Above: Winza laughs and shows his best play-face while Wangari tickle-bites his belly. Left: Special gently restrains a wriggling Stella during a mother-daughter tickle-fight